Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho

Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers …

… the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic

… the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends

… why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity

... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary”

… GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club

… how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him

… and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.

Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues
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